Looks cool mate, but I think it could really benefit from some nice hard edges and flat surfaces. Try getting creative with the clay tubes, flatten and pinch tools 
WAII: Thanks! I gotta finish it 
It is for class
rodion vlasov: Thanks, man! Cool name 
wethand: Thank you!
Dryn: Where do you think that some hard edges and flat surfaces would be good?
Thanks for stopping by, guys!
Well that was a lot of homework. Okay so I’m back to working on the Hydralisk. Here’s what I’m starting to do with the hands.
Feed back would be nice 
very cruel ,
aho_cn: Hey thanks man 
Thanks for stopping by
K, here’s a bit more work on the hands
looking great so far. Maybe try a different mat cap so we can see the forms better?
Well, brettSinclair, since your stuff always looks so great, what mat cap do you use? Thank you for stopping by
heh. Thanks. I try use a mat cap thats close to a blinn. its easier to see what your sculpting imo. Your model is turning out really good. Keep going man
brettSinclair: Thanks. That really means a lot from me. How is this material? Better?
All right, guys. The arms are basically done, imo. Everything does need to be refined, but as far as it goes, it is done. Now I started working on the carapaces. I should finish 'em by this weekend. Or rather, I need to finish 'em by this weekend. I’m gonna be working like a dog to finish him so that I can texture. But I dunno how to start texturing a Zbrush model I guess I’ll learn on the way, just like I did with every other part of Zbrush.
I also reproportioned the Hydralisk because I messed with the topology of the carapaces in the back, so he needed to be reproportioned. His head was lengthened (the crest of the head), his body as a whole was stretched. I am happy with his proportion and with his silhouette.
Tell me what you guys think, please 
Well, its 4 in the morning. I finished most if not all of both carapaces. Now all I need to do is just sharpen my Hydralisk, make him look spiffy. Um, I’d LOVE to know what you guys think, if you guys think that anything needs to be improved, stuff like that.
Now, I can’t decide whether to start texturing or, since I’m on a roll , should I start modeling my other character?
Pretty cool man.
Now it’s ready for texturing some skin details.
Great work!
I think that the silhouette is looking good for your purpose. However the inside of the silhouette is lacking real forms. The forms are there but they are very underdeveloped. There is a feeling of mushyness as it feels like this guy is made out of kid plaster.
A good model would show both hard and soft edges. Your model has only soft edges and forms. I think that your issue at the moment is that you are trying to do too much in short time. You should slow down and put enough care in every form you put on the model. I know you want to make the coolest creature design ever by putting alien forms but the fact is that you have nails, ribs etc that are very familiar to viewer. So either refine them more and make them look like what they should look like or take them out.
My suggestions
-Too much ambition would kill the intented form. A good design would display alot of subleties, too many on your face details will make your design childish.
-Do not underestimate the importance of the function that creates the form/
-Simplify your model. Quantity does not guarantee “coolness” in every occasion
Sorry if that is not the kind of response you were hoping. I just do not like bull**** style critique. Only real critique would help passionate people.
see, I need more replies like that
I agree that I am trying to do too much in too little time. But I also have a few questions: did you see the reference of the ribs? I tried to follow that as best as I could (dunno if I succeeded, no one has told me yet :)) And I dunno if I put up the head reference, but I tried to follow that as best as I could. I agree that less is more sometimes, but in this case, I dunno what more would be and what less would be. I also agree that I need to put a lot more love into this project (and by love, I really mean time, because I do love doing this, but, especially with the two carapaces and the neck area, I didn’t dedicate as much time to certain things as I should have).
I think if I had lots more reference for this beast, that I would have a much better thing. I also think that you are right that I overkilled lots of the detail and that lots of it is also muddled there. But the hydralisk also looks like he has flesh on top of his shells (his harder parts) so I didn’t want to make anything look too hard because then I think that it wouldn’t look like it had a sort of hide ontop of his carapaces. But even so, I think that he needs to have more hard surfaces, I just don’t wanna loose the skin like quality of the carapaces.
How would you make hard surfaces look like they were not made of rock? Or look like they were not completely flat. In essence, how would you make it still look organic, like hide.
here is my head reference and my rib reference is already posted
Thank you so much, kursadk. Your stuff is really awesome, btw. It does indeed look like you put lots of love into it
Question to all out there, where does it look like I have too much and where should I just refine?
Actually you had a good start. But you end up being a Zbrush victim which means that you got lost in the middle of all those great possibilities you can do with zb tools.
What you can do
-Delete highest 2 subd levels and work on the forms themselves first
-Delete those nail-caterpillar feet type of things on the sides and make one real model, a detailed one. Make one and duplicate over the wholes.
-You need to be aware of planes of the form. That is where you got lost. You need to get the rough forms right first, texture and smoothness should not be your worry right now.
-Slow down
-You should redo the chest but plan ahaed this time. Ask questions like how does this thing look like in real life?
-With these kinds of models you need to work with masks as much as possible. Draw a mask and use move tool to extrude those sharp edges.
-Rest will come with experience really.
Hey thanks, kursadk. You’ve really been a big help. I’ll actually begin to do some of the things that you suggested (and my teacher suggested) in the next couple of days. I gotta do homework for other classes for a bit
K, here’s the deal. I refined this region. I am gonna delete all of the spikes that stick outta this guy and then I’m gonna make 'em all by themselves (maybe extract 'em from the original spikes…) If anyone knows a better or easier way, I’d LOVE to know how. I wanna get more detail into these spikes and kursadk suggested me making 'em separate objects so that’s what I’m gonna do
Just make a really good one(nail-feet thing), and duplicate over the model. Once you have all the pieces placed properly, you can then create variations of them. In your original model, those nails had consistency problems in many different ways, so this should be a concrete way of dealing with it.
Okay, so I’m working on the spike template now (the one that I will use to make all of the other spikes from his back all the way down to the tail. I will probably make a different template for the ones going along his sides)
Now here is the question: should I make the spikes look like the reference that I have for the back of the hydralisk or should I make it look more like the horns of the Dik-Dik (yes, that is a real animal. Look it up if you don’t believe me )?
The spikes going down his side will probably not have the little grooves that the ones on his back will have (if I make it like the hydralisk reference).
If I can make the ones on his sides match the ones on his back, but still be different (cuz he uses the ones on his sides to walk, sorta… that’s what it looks like…)
I’ll also make the carapace spike (the spike in the middle) look better. It looks scrawny right now
By the way, I DIDN’T DRAW THE HYDRALISK CONCEPT ON THE LAST POST
Just wanted you to know that in case you didn’t
Well, because of the overwhelming response, I decided that I would go with making it like the concept art. TELL ME WHAT YOU THINK! :o please pretty please :eek:…
… K, here are the pictures.
I also redid the scrawny spike on the carapace so it could more match everything else.
Okay, so now I have the spikes on his back more or less done and am now going to start working on the spikes on the back of his hump/tail thing… Then I’m going to redo the spikes running along his sides (which will be much simpler than these, but will still look cool )
Um, I also redid some of his carapace stuff for a better silhouette and I also reproportioned his hands and turned them a different angle.
I still need to make the spikes fit where they belong (they are sorta hanging out there as you can see)
Hope you like
C & Cs are DEFINITELY welcome